Thousands living in picturesque town face 20-mile round trip to get to the bank as more branches shut their doors

Thousands of people in a picturesque spa town will be forced to go on a 20-mile round trip to use their nearest bank when their local Halifax is axed.

Ilkley in West Yorkshire will be left with just one Santander branch next month, with Halifax becoming the latest to pull out of town, following in the footsteps of Barclays and NatWest.

Locals in the town - once named in the top 50 most desirable places to live in the UK - have been left furious at the news, with residents saying they feel 'betrayed' and 'ignored'. 

The branch was a lifeline to elderly people in the quaint Yorkshire community, with many now having to venture 10 miles north to Skipton to do their banking.  

One businessman who runs a jewellers in Ilkey told MailOnline the closure was 'hammer blow'. 'This is going to be a major issue for some for the older people in the town,' the man, who asked not to be named, said. 

'It’s a real pain. It feels like banks no longer want to be open in small spa towns like Ilkley anymore. 

'It's like they're ignoring us entirely. It doesn’t make sense.'

News of the closure was announced back in July but will come into force as of January 15. It comes as hundreds of branches nationwide have been shut in recent year - with dozens more set to close in early 2024.

Robbie Moore, the town's MP, said axing of the Halifax branch would 'undoubtedly lead to significant disruption for many'. 

Speaking to MailOnline, he said: 'Recent decisions to close our bank branches in Ilkley have left a significant proportion of my constituents in the dark, particularly constituents who cannot use digital banking services or rely on face-to-face contact. 

'Put simply, I am not at all convinced that measures put in place to address these difficulties have been sufficient.'

Deborah Perkins has already been travelling for miles up to Skipton in North Yorkshire to get to a bank branch on public transport, as she does not use the internet, and is frustrated by the closures. 

When asked about how the bank branch closures impact her, she said: 'It impacts a lot because I'm not on the internet, I don't even know how to do internet banking.

'I actually prefer to go into a bank and have a one-to-one person in front of me instead of just a screen. They shut Barclays here in Ilkley the other year which is such a pain because I've got to now get on the bus to get to Skipton and the bus is only every two hours.

'Now, somebody told me they're thinking of, next March sometime, shutting that one in Skipton.'

The closure comes as Lloyds Banking Group announced that it is closing 45 branches across its network and the Halifax and Bank of Scotland brands.

The company claims that due to the shift away from high-street banking. The group is closing 22 Halifax branches, 19 Lloyds branches and four in the Bank of Scotland business by March 2024. 

It comes just a week after NatWest Group said it planned to shut another 19 branches, mostly in the early part of next year.

The latest closures take the total number of high street branches shut across the sector to 623 so far this year.

Lloyds is set to close the bulk of the branches in March and April next year, with some also closing in August and a tranche in November.

It means at least 276 branches will be axed across Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland this year and next.

The closures will leave the group with 515 Lloyds Bank branches, 413 Halifax and 133 Bank of Scotland sites.

There has been a massive exodus of branches from the high street in recent years.

The largest number of closures announced this year have been Barclays branches, with the finance giant saying 185 of its sites are set to shut.

Lloyds is second with 131, followed by NatWest with 116, Halifax with 94, Virgin Money with 40, Bank of Scotland with 32, Ulster Bank with 10, TSB with nine, Royal Bank of Scotland with five, and one Nationwide branch.